President Bola Tinubu yesterday cautioned against the dire consequences of Africa’s long-standing profile as a supplier of raw minerals to other continents.
Extracting raw minerals in Africa, he said, had continued to keep the continent in a state of poverty, making it even more underdeveloped.
He was delivering his keynote address at the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) meeting on the sidelines of the ongoing 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States.
Tinubu pointed out that while Africa holds a significant portion of the world’s mineral reserves, including 92% of global platinum, 56% of cobalt, and 54% of manganese, these resources have been primarily extracted and exported to foreign countries for refining and manufacturing.
Represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, the president in a statement by presidential spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha, highlighted the urgent need for the continent to break free from this dependency, stating that the extraction of raw minerals without local processing only deepens Africa’s underdevelopment and prolongs its economic challenges.
In his address titled, “Africa’s Natural Resources Shaping the Future”, President Tinubu explained that this has left the continent at the mercy of foreign markets, forcing it to repurchase finished products at much higher prices.
“A situation in which the raw minerals are extracted from our countries, exported, refined, and sold to us as finished products merely consolidates the foundations of our misery and pushes us further down the depths of underdevelopment,” he stated.
He called on African nations to adopt a new agenda that prioritizes local value addition, which he sees as essential to industrializing the continent and providing sustainable economic growth.
On evolution of lithium-ion technology, President Tinubu noted that the development has enabled the swift production and manufacturing of portable consumer electronics such as laptops, computers, cellular phones, and electric cars.
